Archive for January, 2011
Emily’s 3rd Annual Wine Dinner
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Emily’s Annual Birthday Wine Dinner! After the holidays, it’s very easy to get caught up in that whole winter boredom thing, but I always have my favorite dinner party of the year to look forward to!
Vicki and I met up after my classes finished on Friday and headed out to Worcester. After a few quick pit stops that included a trip to Panera and visiting with Erin and Ian, we arrived at Emily’s and Trevor’s apartment. In true Emily style, she already had most of the prep work done for Saturday’s dinner. After some quick catching up, we all headed to bed to get a good nights sleep before the following day’s festivities. Unfortunately, I had to spend most of Saturday studying (a few hours of micro and 5 path lectures), but I finally got to enjoy myself during dinner.
Our gnomes were the first guests to arrive 
Vicki helping set up the table settings. I loved the tissue paper flowers/snow balls hanging from the ceiling.
Em and Trevor managed to seat 16 people in the apartment. Very impressive.
Emily decided to create a winter wonderland theme with the directions. Everything was white, glass or sparkly!
Our lovely hosts for the evening, Emily and Trevor!
Emily and I before the guests started arriving.
Just some of the wine that was consumed throughout the evening. We had five different varieties during dinner.
My place setting. Emily actually made all the labels and place cards with her favorite crafting tool, the cri-cut.
Wilbur getting a closer look 
My favorite part of the meal was the cheese course. We had a French double-cream soft cheese made from cow’s milk, a cheese made in the La Mancha region of Spain from the milk of sheep of the Manchega breed, and a goat’s milk cheese native to the Loire Valley in France. When it comes to cheese, Emily doesn’t mess around.
My favorite of the three. It was so creamy and delicious.
Emily served this course with a fennel, apple, walnut salad and a pinot gris.
We also had these little fennel twists. They were super tasty!
My plate filled with cheesy deliciousness!
Emily and Trevor used this cool bottle top decanter when boring the wine. Oh so fancy!
Vicki and I during dinner.
The next course was a endive, roasted fennel and mandarin orange salad with dijon dressing. It was served with an awesome chardonnay.
Third part of the meal was sweet potato fries with a raspberry dipping sauce. AMAZING and made even better with a merlot.
The main entree was a hot and sweet sausage in a classic red sauce served over linguini with a side of squash, zucchini and red onions paired with a sangiovese. YUM!
We finished off the night with a syrah brownie pie made with graham cracker and marshmellow crust. I was so full with the rest of the meal, I only could squeeze in one bite of the brownie 
Right around this part of the night, I got this picture of Emily. I know its a little fuzzy, but I think it’s a beautiful picture of our hostess
117 Lanark reunion. Renate, Michele and I
All and all, it was a wonderful evening filled with friends, fun, and REALLY good food. I wish I got more pictures, but I was too busy having a fantastic time. As usual, Emily and Trevor thew a great party, and served one of the best meals I’ve had in a very long time. I can’t wait for next year
As if Emily didn’t serve us enough amazing food, the next morning she served a post wine dinner brunch for those of us who stayed over night.
I had hash browns, veggie quiche and some grapes. Perfect way to start the morning!
Vicki and I spent the rest of the day hanging out with Emily and Trevor. I managed to get a surprising amount of work done too:) One of my favorite parts of the day was watching Emily in her element. Getting her craft on! Here she is whipping up a diaper cake for her friend Kat.
Finished product, gnome not included
Kudos to Couscous!
Although this school week was a short one (thanks to MLK day), this week was stressful. This unit is particularly difficult because we have all of our regular classes AND a micro cumulative shelf exam that we are supposed to be studying for in our “free time.” To make matters worst, the professor in charge of teaching renal pathology is TOUGH. A direct quote from Friday’s class: “I didn’t make you come here. I just make you feel the pain.” Thanks Shanley…
Let me explain why these past few days sucked (or skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to hear me vent about school). After driving back from my weekend at home, Monday was spent working on mini cases and going through our renal pathology midterm. In theory, this shouldn’t have been to bad, but it ended up taking up a huge chunk of the day. Tuesday involved waking up at 6:30 for a 3 hour POM small group session on office diagnostics. I can now cross off catheterizing a mannequin, peeing in a cup to test my own urine, and doing a fecal occult blood test off my bucket list. A fecal occult blood test detects blood in the stool by placing a small sample of stool on a chemically treated card. Luckily, they had us working with cat food. After a lunch meeting for a group I’m secretary for, we had two hours of lecture. Then it was off to meet up with my MIRACLE class partner to work on the 45 minute presentation we needed to give later that evening. After finishing the powerpoint, I headed to my advisory dean meeting for 30 minutes and then left early to make it to my MIRACLE class. The presentation ended up going really well. I was nervous that it wasn’t going to be one of my better speaking sessions as I was exhausted and hadn’t spent much time practicing. In fact, we never actually did a run through before class. Luckily it all came together and my professor said it was one of the best MIRACLE presentations he’s seen! After 1.5 hours of listening to two other presentations, I headed home to start cooking dinner at 9 pm and to START prepping for an MLC quiz. Because I spent so much time working on the presentation, MLC had to wait. Luckily, I made it to bed by 1:30. Wednesday involved several hours of lectures, a quiz and then a 2 hour medical spanish class. The rest of the week consisted of more studying, more lectures, more lunch meetings and more late nights. Man, I’m tired from just typing that all out. All I have to say is thank God for coffee.
Because these past few days have been so busy, I didn’t get to spend a whole lot of time in the kitchen. After coming home late earlier in the week, I went to my pantry and hoped I would find something to inspire a quick meal. I remembered I had a box couscous and that sounded absolutely delicious. I love the texture of pearled couscous. Because I made so much at once, this one pot of couscous actually got me through several meals AND saved me a ton of time. Kudos to couscous!
I really liked this variety. The directions had me add a tablespoon of olive oil, and the oil really helped keep the couscous from sticking.
Meal #1. I gathered the ingredients to make an veggie egg scramble. Who doesn’t love breakfast for dinner?
Using my awesome new griddler, I precooked the veggies. This was the first time using the griddle side of the plates, and they worked really well.
Red onions with a little chopped garlic
There was a little bit of a cooking hiccup and I was busy trying to keep things from burning and spilling. I didn’t get any pictures of the eggs cooking, but I did get one of the final product. I know what you’re thinking, coucous and eggs? The flavors actually worked really well together and the consistency wasn’t weird at all. It reminded me of eggs and hash browns, just smaller and rounder.
Meal #2. I combined some of the leftover couscous with broccli and fresh edamame. Again, I didn’t get a picture but I found a snap shot that looked an awfully lot like my dish online at this website.
Meal #3. I packed some of the couscous for lunch. I combined it with chicken, peppers, tomatoes and beans for a tasty, protein-y, packed lunch.
Although I would love to take credit for making the chicken and bean mix, it actually came from a frozen smart ones. These things are perfect for a quick meal on the run.
Meal #4. I combined some garlic, olive oil, chunky chopped red onion and shrimp in a small frying pan.
I also cooked a bunch of arugula and spinach.
Bam! That whole thing took last then 10 minutes. The shrimp-onion portion of the meal came out amazing and some extra pepper gave it a nice extra kick.
Check back tomorrow for my next post which will be about Emily’s annual wine dinner
Damn you Ashton Kutcher!
Ok, I guess my beef isn’t really with Ashton, but he is an easy scapegoat. I’m home in Fonda, hard at work studying. This means I’m listening to a whole lot of pandora. I love Pandora. Free radio that is tailored to my tastes and mood is the perfect study aid. That was before “No Strings Attached” started advertising on my pandora “study station.” I first saw a trailer for this movie a few weeks ago.
Thoughts:
- Wow, Natalie Portman is doing a romantic comedy?
- A romantic comedy with Ashton Kutcher? Really Natalie? This is Kelso from That Seventies Show. You get nominated for oscars.
- I forgot how attractive Ashton Kutcher could be…
- Oh, she’s a busy doctor with no time for a love life. Sounds familiar…
- Ludacris is in it! He brings back so many good memories at the Jug.
- It’s a romantic comedy. Who am I kidding? I’m going to see it…because that’s how I roll.
At the end of this conversation (with myself), I was all set to see the movie when it came out. And then the Pandora commercial happened. Approximately every 15 minutes (at least that’s what it feels like), I hear the same commercial. Over and over again. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard Natalie Portman scream “Why can’t we just have sex” and one of the supporting characters refer to Ashton as “the old man from Up!” Maybe its because I’m listening to Pandora more than usual, but this has been driving me BONKERS!!!!
Therefore, as of this evening, I’ve officially updated my Pandora. Granted, I was going to have to do this very soon regardless of the commercial. I only have one hour of free listening left, but I couldn’t deal with another hour of this movie preview. Their advertisement has failed. I will NOT see this movie (at least in theaters) on principle. Also if you listen to Pandora at work how incredibly inappropriate.
In other news, we got Chinese take-out for dinner tonight. I ordered the chicken with veggies over brown rice, and I think it’s going to last me for three meals. They give such huge serving sizes!
After dinner, I cracked open a fortune cookie. Student. Yup, that’s me.
“Everything will now come your way.” I’d like to think that means all the answers will pop into my head, but it more likely means I have a whole lot of bugs to learn my micro shelf and I should get back to studying
A “Skinny Girl Night Out”
Yesterday was January 14th which meant two things, the Shanley Renal test (boo!) and Emily’s birthday! My best friend turned 27! After the test, I hurried home to pack because, as I mentioned in a previous post, Emily and I had exciting plans. We were going to hear Bethenny Frankel speak at Proctor’s Theater in Schnectady, NY.
As you may or may not know, Bethenny is a natural foods chef, television personality, and author. She was a contestant on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, where she placed second, and then went on to star as one of the Real Housewives of New York. Since leaving the show, she has starred in her own reality show, Bettheny Getting Married, and as we learned on Friday, she will be returning to TV in Bettheny Ever After. Bethenny also has a local connection to the capital district. She spent her summer’s in Saratoga Springs where her dad worked as a horse trainer. She even gave a shot out to the city during the show, saying all of her favorite childhood memories took place in and around the area. Emily and I both fans. She is by far my favorite housewife of all time, and I watched every single episode of Bravo’s highest rated show of all time, Bethenny Getting Married.
Emily got our tickets and I just have to say what an amazing job she did picking seats. Not only were we A) on the end and B) in the center, we were C) EXTREMELY close to the restroom. Not surprisingly, the audience was primarily female and the ladies’ room filled up fast after the show. Luckily, Em and I were the first people in line!
Emily and I had plans to grab a quick dinner at the cafe outside of the theater. Unfortunately, they stopred serving real food after a certain time and our choices were coffee and cookies. We decided to wait and pick up something once we were in the theater. The choices were also fairly limited inside (nuts or alcohol). Em and I opted for some bottled water and almonds.
The show started with Jay Z’s song Empire State of Mind. Once she came out on stage all 1300 audience members were pretty excited. She wore a cute little red strapless dress (French Connection for $30) and a new watch that must have been fairly pricey (she mentioned her “buyer’s remorse”).
Bethenny sat next to a table with a bouquet of red roses and of course a bottle of her Skinny Girl Margarita.
Bethenny started out with a quick intro, and then got right into her food rules. Overall, I agree with most of what she has to say. She spoke about portion control, eating real foods, and being aware of what you’re putting in your mouth. The message was to stop emotionally eating, stop bingeing, and stop cleaning your plate. Easier said than done. Clearly her food rules do not apply someone actually has a problem with food. It’s not as simple as reading a book and being “released” from the control of food. It takes years of therapy and confronting and dealing with the issues behind the emotional eating for someone to really be freed from the diet cycle. Although her advice may work for some, in my medical opinion, it can’t be applied to everyone. The other thing that detracted from her food rules for me was the fact that she has no nutritional training or any background in psychology. Thus, while I agree with her message of mindful eating, I took most of this portion of the evening with a grain of salt.
One thing that I wish she would have spoke more about was her food and recipes. Essentially her message was keep it simple. Good advice, but as a natural chef, this is something that she’s an authority on, and I’m sure she could have shared a ton of good info. Due to the time constraints of the evening, she didn’t speak very long about this.
The third portion of her evening involved getting to a “place of yes.” What I took from this is exactly what they wrote in the program. “Rules for everything you want to get out of life.” This was my favorite and most useful portion of the talk. She spoke of always doing your best with whatever you’re doing and if you can’t do it to it’s full potential, don’t do it. Bethenny also mentioned that if you really want something, you have to work for it. Solid advice. For me, the rule that hit home the most was “all roads lead to Rome.” She explained that this wasn’t insinuating that we should all be packing our bags for Italy anytime soon, but that everything we do in our life is building towards our future. Things that we’re doing now (for me, studying book upon book of medical information) may not be the most exciting activity, but working hard towards our goal will get us to the places we want to be.
The final portion of the evening was the Q and A session. While good in theory, not so good in execution. Instead of having audience members line up behind a mike and ask questions in an organized manner, it was just who ever she pointed to. A staff member would run over to that person with a mike. It was pretty chaotic. People were running around and essentially yelling “pick me!” While there was some good questions about getting a business going and being a single woman in your 20′s and 30′s, some of the questions were absolutely crazy. The word like was used an absurd number of times. Example question: “So Hi Bethenny. I’m a senior at <insert random high school or college> and I’m moving to New York. Can you like give me advice of how I should like navigate the city so like I don’t get like mugged or liked raped?” I was impressed by how well she dealt with all of the ridiculous questions. Quite a few people didn’t really have questions, but instead asked for hugs and autographs. She was a good sport and actually did sign books (as she’s doing below)….
….and come into the audience to give a hug.
Some of my favorite parts of the show:
- Jason was there! He’s such a good sport. Several times during the show, Bethenny gave him a hard time about everything from the first time the met to his love of protein bars. He even posed for pictures afterwards.
- She did a Jill impersonation! As usual, spot on.
- She gossiped a little about the show. Apparently, Kelly IS that crazy, the Beverly Hills ladies ARE that rich, and Max will NOT be returning to the show. “He just wanted to be on TV.” Also, she mentioned that from the show, she only speaks to Ramona and Alex.
- She announced that in addition to the Skinny Girl Margarita, she will soon be releasing a Skinny Girl Sangria.
- After mentioned her dry legs, she borrowed some lotion from an audience member and lotioned her legs.
- She actually came into the audience, gave hugs, signed books. I’m not so sure all celebrities would do that.
Overall, it was a great experience. I came away from the evening feeling like I just had a good pep talk from a close girlfriend. When Bethenny speaks, she’s absolutely hilarious. She’s an intelligent and witty woman who has worked hard to be where she’s at in life and is very open about the fact that it wasn’t an easy ride. I very much appreciated her general message of work hard, be the best person you can be, and single girl power. Job well done and thanks for a great evening Bethenny!
Flaskback to Key West Part 3: Bienvenido a Miami!
Flashback to Key West Part 1: The Arrival
Flashback to Key West Part 2: Hanley and Jamie’s Wedding
Although we had a fantastic time in Key West, it was time to say our goodbyes. Emily, Richard, Michele and I started to head back towards Miami. Since we weren’t in as big of a rush this time around, we made a few stops along the way to enjoy the beautiful views from the highway.
Even my gnome, Wilber, get in on the photo ops.
Along the way, we stopped in Key Largo. We thought, hey baby, why don’t we go down to Mrs. Mac’s Kitchen for some lunch
I knew from the moment I saw this sign that this was my kind of place.
I ordered the crab cakes with coleslaw. De-lish!
Since it was my last days in the Keys, I splurged and had some of Mrs Mac’s World Famous Key Lime Pie. The locals say its the best, and I would have to agree.
We arrived in Miami and had to say goodbye to Emily so she could make her flight
After checking into the the Four Points by Sheraton Miami Beach, Michele, Richard and I spent the rest of the day wandering around Miami Beach.
The first stop was Oceans 10 in South Beach. Little did we know, it was also going to be the first bar featured on the second season of the Jersey Shore. From the size of those drinks, I know why the JS kids liked it so much. I enjoyed a 36 oz mixture of pina colada and strawberry daiquri, also known as a Miami Vice. Nothing says vacation like a drink the size of your head.
We also “attended” our second wedding in under a week.
The next day, Michele had to a catch a flight home Richard and I were exhausted from all the excitement of the past few days, and we decided to have a very relaxed day hanging out on the beach and by the pool. We started off in the hammocks in front of our hotel.
Richard relaxing besides me.
The view from my hammock.
Now this is what I call vacation!
Palm trees, a cold drink and a good book equal a happy Sarah!
Eventually we decided to make the long trek from the hammocks to the beach (about 15 feet ). We crossed the boardwalk that runs all along the beach.
Beach!
I have to admit, I was surprised at just how beautiful Miami Beach actually is. I was expecting it to be way more crowded, but we had plenty of space. This was definitely one of the pros of staying at a hotel not in south beach.
The water was crystal clear and super refreshing.
Eventually, after a hard day of relaxing, Richard and I decided we needed some dinner. We headed down to South Beach to eat at Gloria Estefan’s restaurant Larios on the Beach. I started off with a strawberry Mojito.
Even though I loved the restaurant, the lighting definitely wasn’t made for a food blogger. Regardless, I had the Vaca Frita De Pollo, cuban style fried shredded breast topped with grilled onions.
Not the best picture, but I also had maduras, sweet friend plantains, and moro rice.
Some of the South Beach night life on our walk home.
All in all, this trip was AMAZING. Not only did I get to spend time with four of my best friends, but southern Florida is fantastic. I definitely fell in love with the area, and its one more place I’m adding to my potential residency location list
Flashback to Key West Part 2: Hanley and Jamie’s Wedding
The day was finally here. Hanley and Jamie were getting married!!! We headed over to the Reach Resort for morning brunch at the Strip House.
Before I headed in, we stopped to check out the dock where the ceremony would take place.
The Strip House had a retro 1920s vibe. Much like one would expect at a place called the strip house, the walls were decorated with pictures of nude women from yesteryear.
There was an amazing buffet, and I loaded up my plate on fruit, eggs, potatoes and sweet breads.
After fueling up for the big day, Emily, Michele, Richard and I decided to do a little more sight seeing. We were only in Key West for a few days, and we wanted to see all the city had to offer. One of our first stops was at the famous Southernmost Point. We waited in line with all the other tourists to have our picture taken. I tried to see if I could spot Cuba in the distance. No luck
We also stopped by the Southernmost House. Pink AND palm trees? My kind of place.
Em and Michele being touristy.
Richard and Michele continued on our sight seeing adventure, but Emily and I had to head back to start getting ready. For obvious reasons, I have no pictures of this process, but I would like to say a big thank you to Emily. In addition to being the wedding photographer, she was also my hair stylist I got a ton of compliments because she did an AWESOME job! After helping Han finish getting ready, we left for the hotel.
The paparazzi shot.
On the way to the to wedding.
Michele, Richard and I looking cute
Hanley and I just before the ceremony.
The ceremony!
I love this picture. Hanley and Jamie sent it out as part of the thank you card.
Love this shot that Richard got during the post wedding photography session.
The family.
Wedding party.
Hanley and Jamie with their friend Tracy who performed the ceremony. One of my favorite picture that Emily took all day.
Hanley and Jamie enjoying some much deserved champagne.
My lovely travel companions and I at the cocktail hour.
Mmmm. Everything they served during the cocktail hour was delicious. Thank goodness I discovered my new love of sea food before I arrived in Key West
Michele and Richard
The ladies made their entrance and were announced for the first time as a married couple.
My beautiful flowers.
I absolutely loved their cake. They even used brown sugar to create sand. It looked amazing and tasted fantastic!
Dinner started off with a garden salad.
I ordered the vegetarian option. It was perhaps one of the best pasta primarveras I’ve ever had.
Table number 2 was definitely the best table
So many lovely ladies in blue! All of the bridesmaids and the beautiful brides.
Hanley’s brother Jeremy gave a great toast.
Jamie’s maid of honor made me get a little misty. The toasts are definitely one of my favorite parts of a wedding.
Finally it was time to bust a move and get our dance on! I don’t have too many pictures because I was too busy shaking my groove thing
As you can tell, Hanley and Jamie had one of the most beautiful weddings I’ve ever been to. It was several years in the making and well worth the wait. I had a wonderful time and made some fantastic memories. I love you girls and wish you many happy years together!
Special thanks to Richard and Emily who provided many of the photographs for my wedding post. To see what Emily had to say about the wedding click here.
Flashback to Key West Part 1: The Arrival
I first met my friend Hanley through Craigslist in 2006. I had just moved to Boston, and Kat, Richard, Lia and I were in desperate need of a 5th roommate. We crossed our fingers and put up an ad. Hanley was one of the first people to respond. Lia and I set up a date to meet at Starbucks in Coolidge Corner. From the first minute, I could tell I was going to get along with Han extremely well. She was super friendly, and one of the most genuine people I had met since moving to the city. After checking back with the other roommates, Hanley quickly became number five at 58 Perry.
From the first day we moved in together, Hanley became one of my closest friends. Whether we were going on mini road trips to taco bell, watching bad television, or cooking family dinner together, I always had a fantastic time. Hanley has always been an amazing friend to me, and I’m so grateful she came into my life almost 5 years ago. One of my favorite memories with Han was the first day she met Jamie. That first night out at Cornwall’s is memorable for many reasons, but the most important part of the evening was that Hanley was with the woman she would marry.
Three years later, I found myself in a hotel in Miami. Michele and Richard were both enroute to meet me and head to Key West for wedding festivities. We enjoyed some fine dining (IHOP) and watching all the craziness involving Lebron. We were there the night he signed with the Miami Heat.
Emily picked us up the next morning, and we started our road trip through southern Florida. The drive from Miami to Key West is beautiful. I highly recommend making the trek, as opposed to flying directly into the keys.
We encountered several storms along the way. The weather was crazy, and you could actually see the storms approaching.
Richard enjoying a frosty after one of many pit stops. Michele was very excited to have her to frosty key chain.
We had lunch at one of my new favorite fast food chains, Pollo Tropical!
We need to take a moment to check out Richard’s t-shirt. Just one of the many reasons I consider him one of my closest friends…
My very first fast food plantains. They looked terrible but were super tasty!
We finally arrived at Key West….where chickens roam free. I’m not kidding. They are EVERY WHERE.
One of our first stops was…
.
Margaritaville!
Guess what I got?
After lunch we met up with the rest of the crew for the bachelorette parties. We got a little something something for Hanley to dress up in.
One of the many stops throughout the night
After a night out on the town, we headed back to the hotel. Realization of the night, when hot enough, you will do anything when attempting to cool down. Key West is a beautiful place, but you can imagine that southern Florida gets pretty warm in July. After the festivities Emily and I stopped by the pool to dip our toes in, hoping to cool down. I soon realized that to actually decrease my temperature, I was going to have to go all in. Nothing better than a late night dip in the hotel pool:)
Day Two
We decided to go on a snorkeling adventure in some of the local reefs. I don’t have many pics, but this is definitely one of my favorites.
After our adventure, we headed over to the hotel for the rehearsal. I got my first look at the place where the wedding was going to take place. OH MY GOD, it was GORGEOUS. I would also like to mention that I took these pictures on my iphone 4. Pretty nice for a phone camera.
Beautiful. Just beautiful.
Instead of having a traditional rehearsal dinner, Hanley and Jamie decided to rent a sail boat and take all the guests on a sunset cruise. Included in the cruise was an open bar and a ton of food. Needless to say, we were psyched! Emily, Michele and I ready for a nautical adventure.
Hanley and her dad.
Emily doing a wonderful job as the wedding photographer.
I love this series of photos. When you’re in Key West you have to have a few margaritas.
Eventually we made it out to the dance floor.
The lovely brides busting a move.
Richard got in on the action.
Richard and Han sharing a laugh.
Michele and I.
Meeech Love this picture of her!
Richard and I having a moment.
After a lovely evening of dining and dancing, the sun began to set. Time to bust out the cameras.
Another boat sailing by. This is what our boat must have looked like from a distance…minus some of those people.
Beautiful open ocean.
A sail boat in the distance.
As the sun set on our wonderful evening, we were all very excited for tomorrow’s festivities
Next post: “Hanley and Jamie get married.”
Just another Kidney Monday…
I AM DONE. After hours and hours of out lining the renal chapter in my path text book over the past week, I am finished. Take that Kumar et. al! Who knew handwriting 25 (front and back) pages of medical info would up that much of my life? I’m prepping for the big 50 question MLC test on Friday, and part of that studying involved making my way through 64 pages of dense medical text. Even though I’m finished with one portion of my studying, it’s only a small victory. I still need to go through the supplemental pages, and then actually learn the information. Conclusion of the night: I am not going to be a renal pathologist.
As you can imagine, most of my night was spent looking at this scene. If you’re wondering, yes that’s three different glasses and I was consuming three different drinks throughout the evening Water, protein shake, and….
You guessed it, COFFEE!
I love the new mug Wendy got me for Christmas. It’s the perfect size.
I’m also enjoying the new candle scent I got myself at Yankee Candle. It’s a “tropical holiday escape with this bright, festive blend of pineapple, coconut and cilantro.” We all know how much I love palm trees and all things related to the beach.
Since I spent my night studying, I decided to have some leftovers for dinner. I topped a salad with some of last night’s tofu, tomato, and red pepper. Surprisingly, I liked it much better cold. I think sitting in the fridge over night helped with the texture.
In other more exciting news, you may have noticed an addition to my race list. It’s official. I’m signed up to run in the 2011 Boilermaker. They are capping the race at 13,000 runners this year (1000+ already registered), so I wanted to make sure I got a spot. I won’t know if my schedule will work out for quite a while, but I have a feeling that I won’t be in the hospital my first Sunday on my first clinical rotation (fingers crossed).
Also, I may have AMAZING plans with the best friend on Friday. It’s her birthday and if everything works out, we will be going to see one of our favorite TV personalities. Fingers crossed
Time to review some EKGs and then hopefully in bed by 12:30. Goodnight!
Not so Tofu-rrific…
I wouldn’t say tonight’s dinner was a total bust, but it definitely wasn’t one of my finest moments in the kitchen. After a workout on the treadmill, I was super hungry and 100% ready for dinner. Warning: It’s not a good idea to watch Modern Family and run at the same. Amazon was having a sale, and I got the first season on DVD. What better motivation to get on the treadmill than I show I love and some episodes I haven’t seen yet. Unfortunately, I had to come to a complete stop at one point because I was laughing so hard. I won’t go into too much detail for those who haven’t seen the very first episode, but when Cam introduces Lily to the family, I LOST it.
Anyway, back to to my adventures in Tofu-land. My plan was to make grilled tofu and pair it with veggies and rice.
I found this marinade at Wegmans.
Tofu marinating. Mistake # 1. Usually when I cook tofu, I press the water out for about 30 minutes. Because I wasn’t in the mood to wait that long for dinner, I only let it set for about 5 minutes. It felt a little more moist than normal, but I went ahead and put the marinade on and waited for 20 minutes.
Tofu on the griddler. Mistake #2: I love my new griddler and have used it almost every day since I got back from Christmas break. It comes with a handy guide that tells you how long and at what temp to cook meats. Surprise, surprise, there was no info for Tofu. I decided to try 10 minutes at medium. I’m always super nervous about something starting to smoke and setting off the fire alarm. I would have an apartment building full of people VERY upset with me. In retrospect, I should have just put the fan on and cranked it up to high.
Finished tofu. Mistake #3. It probably could have cooked for another 10 minutes. The outside was done, but the inside was still kind of mushy. I usually don’t mind raw tofu, but I’m not a fan of half cooked tofu.
I made some of this whole grain pilaf. Super filling and for those who are interested, 4 points for 140 grams.
Tofu, pilaf, and veggies. Once I mixed it all together, it wasn’t too bad. The marinade gave the Tofu a great flavor which sort of made up for the mushy middle. Total pointage was about 10 points. Not so bad for this much carb-dense food.
In other news, I’m still working on Hanley’s wedding post. I should have that one up by the end of the day tomorrow. Another spoiler alert, I have so many pics, I’m going to have to split it up into three separate posts. This is what happens when you’re best friend is the photographer. Just too many photos to choose form
Hibachi night!
It’s the weekend! I was so excited to not have to get up when it was still dark out, that I didn’t even set an alarm. Unfortunately, that meant I didn’t wake up until 10 am. Oops. But I guess that meant after a week back at school, my body needed the rest. After I little reading in the morning, I met up with a few of my friends at Panera for a study date. It’s always nice to have a few friends to keep you company when you’re doing something less than awesome…like an MLC article. To treat myself after a day of hard work, Tara, Julia and I went to Koto for dinner. I’ve been to this Japanese steakhouse several times before, and the food is always amazing and the atmosphere is great. I forgot my camera at home, but luckily, I had my iphone.
Julia and Tara, my lovely dining companions.
I opted for the soup…
…and Hibachi! I LOVE going out for Hibachi. It’s super fun to watch the “show,” and I love that my food is cooked right in front of me.
Our chef prepping the meat, veggies, and noodles.
More prepping. I tried to get a picture of my favorite part (the onion volcano) but iphone was not cooperating.
Finished meal! Brown rice, hibachi chicken and veggies. It was super tasty and fairly healthy. I counted it as 14 ww points. It’s still a little hard for me to estimate with the new points system so I could be totally off. Thoughts?
I spent the rest of the night working on some medical Spanish homework. I know. As if I wasn’t busy enough, why not take another elective? At least this class will be useful. Even though I had to be productive, I figured I deserved a glass of wine. It IS a Saturday night!
I had a glass of the Merlot Wendy got me for Christmas.
You may be wondering what that white thing was in front of my glass. It’s my wine re-corker! I put one of the resuseable tops on the bottle, pump out the air, and I have a recorked, vacuum-sealed bottle. It’s one of the most useful gadgets in my kitchen. For anyone who lives by themselves, you know what a pain it is to open a bottle of wine and have it go bad before you can finish it. With this thing, I can keep my wine fresh long enough so I can finish a whole bottle.
That’s all for tonight, but (spoiler alert ) I’ve been working on my flashback post of Hanley’s wedding. Hopefully, I’ll get that up before the end of the weekend, but now it’s time for bed. Goodnight!
